UN claims Iraq underplays civilian death toll

The UN today criticised the Iraqi government for failing to provide civilian casualty figures and rejected the accusation that it is using the information in "inappropriate fashion".

In its latest human rights report on Iraq, covering the first three months of 2007, the UN human rights office in Iraq expressed its regret that the government on this occasion did not provide access to the ministry of health's mortality figures.

The number of civilian deaths in the Iraq conflict has always been politically contentious.

The Shia prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, argues the UN mission in Iraq has exaggerated the death toll from violence between Shia and Sunni Arabs and has blocked Iraqi officials from releasing data.

"Unami [UN assistance mission for Iraq] emphasises again the utmost need for the Iraqi government to operate in a transparent manner and does not accept the government's suggestion that Unami used the mortality figures in an inappropriate fashion," the report said.

Unami said in January that 34,452 civilians were killed and more than 36,000 wounded in 2006. The UN said Mr Maliki's office had accused the mission of overstating the death toll figure published in January, even though "they were in fact official figures compiled and provided by a government ministry".

Today's report did not contain figures for the first three months of the year, but noted that casualties had risen in March despite Iraqi government claims that such numbers had dropped in February.

"While government officials claimed an initial drop in the number of killings in the latter half of February, following the launch of the Baghdad security plan, the number of reported casualties rose again in March," the report said.

In recent weeks, Baghdad has suffered a number of devastating suicide bomb attacks, usually in crowded market places. One of the deadliest occurred in February when a truck packed with explosives blew up, killing an estimated 135 people and injuring 339 others in a busy market in the predominantly Shia district of al-Sadriyya of Baghdad.

In an attempt to prevent sectarian killings, the US started building a three-mile wall to seal off the Sunni neighbourhood of Adamiya in Baghdad from the Shia communities surrounding it on three sides. Mr Maliki called for a halt in construction amid fears that it would take the symbolic status of similar barriers in Northern Ireland and the West Bank.

The UN report also expressed concern at the treatment of suspects arrested under the Baghdad security plan because of an apparent lack of due process.

"The use of torture and other inhumane treatment in detention centres under the authority of the ministry of interior and the ministry of defence continues to be of utmost concern," the UN said.

"Unami re-emphasises the urgent need to establish an effective tracking mechanism to account for the location and treatment of all detainees from the point of arrest."